To Mothers Everywhere--Especially Mine!

Mother’s Day sneaked up on me this year--it seems to have come early--but here it is, the second Sunday in May.

Traditionally, Mother’s Day has been set aside to show mothers gratitude and affection for all they do for us, their families. People mark the holiday with brunches, lunches and special dinners. It is one of the floral industry’s busiest days, and long distance phone lines jam up as children reach out to touch base with Mom.

The day became an official holiday in America in 1914, after intense lobbying by a women named Anna M. Jarvis. Jarvis was moved to mark the day after experiencing the loss of her own mother. According to womenshistory.about.com, Jarvis had an argument with her mom, and the two had not reconciled when her mother died. She began to mark the anniversary of her mother’s death, the second Sunday of May, by passing out carnations in her mother’s church.

Soon, her home city, Philadelphia, was celebrating Mother’s Day, and Jarvis, with others, began a letter-writing campaign to make it a national holiday. Jarvis later decried the commerciality of the holiday--the purchase of flowers, and greeting cards (she felt a handwritten letter was more meaningful).

But Mother’s Day celebrations are found even earlier in history than Jarvis'. Ancients of the Greek and Roman empires both had spring festivals honoring “mother” goddesses--Rhea in Greece and Cybele in Rome.

In the 1600s, England observed “Mothering Sunday,” a day servants and apprentices were encouraged to go home to spend the day with their mothers. They often carried with them special cakes to offer as gifts. This tradition died out with the feudal system only to be revived as American soldiers reintroduced the idea during WWII. And not to be forgotten is Julia Ward Howe, the first to organize Mother’s Day celebrations in the United States--as a day to promote peace.

Personally, I think we should pamper our mothers more often than once a year--how hard is a note, a phone call, or a bouquet of flowers? We may not even have Mother’s Day as a holiday if not for the guilt and grief of Anna Jarvis. To avoid the same trap that snared her--taking our mothers for granted, their love, their comfort, their advice--I suggest we keep our mothers on our minds and in our hearts every day of every year. Then, on the second Sunday of every May, celebrating Mother’s Day will be a greater, grander affair steeped with real meaning.